More than one million people have opened online stores on the mainland's largest retail website, Taobao, over the past five years.

By the end of April, 1.06 million people had become employed through opening stores. In October 2005, Taobao pledged to create one million jobs through its platform over five years.

According to company statistics, online store owners come from all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. More than half are from eastern and southern coastal areas that are economically developed and export-orientated.

However, store owners are not earning much, receiving a monthly income of 1,000 yuan (HK$1,143) to 2,000 yuan.

Other data shows that 57.7 per cent of store owners are aged between 23 and 32. Some 8.1 per cent are aged between 18 and 22 and are believed to be university students.Xinhua

Institute to launch course

The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management will launch a certificate programme in employee coaching and counselling.

The one-month course, starting next month, covers a range of theoretical and practical issues from career development, mentoring and performance counselling to implementing executive coaching programmes.

The fee is HK$5,800 for institute members and HK$6,300 for non-members.

Employers in Britain fear they will be unable to recruit students with the skills they need as the economic recovery kicks in, The Guardianreports.

Nearly half of organisations told researchers they are already struggling to find employees with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths, while even more companies expect to experience shortages of employees with such skills in the next three years.

The Confederation of British Industry and vocational qualifications body EDI surveyed 694 organisations across the public and private sectors that together employ 2.4 million people.

Half are concerned they will not be able to fill graduate posts in the coming years, while a third said they would not be able to recruit enough employees with the right A-level skills.